Colne mum "went through hell" with autistic son before getting help from Burnley well-being company

The mother of a seven-year-old who was excluded from primary school and told he required specialist support has spoken of the help offered by a Burnley-based behavioural management company on a mission to improve kids' well-being and life chances.

Having moved from St Annes to Colne in 2016 partly because her son Kalel had received a fixed exclusion from his primary school, Stacey was told on Kalel's first day at his new primary school that her son needed specialist support. Thankfully, Burnley-based Aspire Behaviour Management was on hand to help.

Aspite Director, Gill Bullock.

With the government’s own Health and Social Care Committee claiming thousands of children are missing out on vital mental health support, Aspire subsequently worked with the school and the family for 16 months until a permanent solution could be found. Having worked with children, their schools, and their families to formulate techniques which improve children’s mental health and emotional resilience, Aspire are at the cutting edge of such processes.

“Parents like me have no idea what to do or to ask for," said Stacey. "He had every type of behaviour - spitting, being no compliant, screaming... everything you can think of really. At Kalel’s previous school we had gone through months of hell without being referred anywhere, but at his new school the fact they knew he needed specialist support made all the difference to our lives.”

Explaining that it can be easy for parents to get caught up in scare stories, Aspire insist that the most important thing is that parents be provided with the practical tools to know how to help their child, including mental health provision, with the company presenting their 'Developing Emotional Resilience and Improving Mental Health in the classroom' event in Bolton later this month.

“Children who need mental health support or other supported interventions will very rarely have just one thing going on in their lives," said Aspire Director and Founder, Gill Bullock, who has over 30 years’ experience working with vulnerable children as well as a daughter with dyslexia and a son who was diagnosed with ADHD at the age of four. "There are often a whole range of challenges that we need to work with and that involves working with the family as well as the school.

"We think it’s important parents and families as well as teachers and professionals know some of the latest techniques and thinking," she added, with the upcoming conference set to highlight key interventions that can make a difference and include speakers and workshops from child psychologists and Nurture UK amongst others.

According to the government’s Health and Social Care Committee, at least one in 10 children have a diagnosable mental health condition and those most in need of support, including children at risk or those who have been excluded, are particularly vulnerable. This was certainly the case for Stacey Faulkner and her son Kalel.

Kalel (seven) was eventually diagnosed as autistic. His behaviour problems had emerged because regular school was simply too overwhelming for him, and he now attends Cribden House in Rawtenstall.